Introduction

This guide is tailored to crush souls anywhere from Bronze to high Platinum ELO.

Zilean is in my opinion one of those most broken hidden champions you can play to gain ELO quickly.

What makes Zilean unique is that his skill-set has a tremendous amount of synergy with a vast variety of team compositions.

This basic guide will explain a solid build and some tips to be an effective Zilean player.

Skill Set & Summoner Spells

Passive:Time in a Bottle
I can't tell you how many times this passive was used to make plays.
Use it to give your ADC the extra level advantage.
Always give out experience whenever you can because your passive will become useless once everyone hits lvl 18.

-

Time Bomb
Zilean's one and only damage output.
It's also his biggest play-making ability. Nothing is more satisfying than chain stunning 5 champions and making them look stupid!

Always look to chain your Time Bomb with Rewind.
Try to only throw single bombs when you aren't able to chain the bombs.

Use your bombs VERY sparingly and only use it when you see a window of opportunity.

-

Rewind
Unfortunately this ability DOES NOT affect the cooldown of your ultimate like it used to.
Nevertheless, combo this with your Time Bomb and Time Warp

-

Time Warp
Most Zilean players I see boost themselves more than their teammates.

Speedboost champions on your team that need that extra bit of speed to engage a fight, always be aware of windows of opportunities for your team to go in.

-

Chronoshift
The Bread-and-Butter and essence of Zilean. Chronoshift.
When used properly, you essentially have a Guardians Angel for your entire team, well..Not at the same time but you get what I mean!

Don't just ult someone at full health because you see him getting dived.
Use it strategically at the last second because the moment they see the ult they'll stop attacking and leave you in a fairly awkward situation.

Try to ult other people over yourself. Don't be the selfish support, even if you end up dying, a ult on someone else might be more beneficial.

Just in-case your ticking time bomb doesn't finish them off, for good measure carry this around. It makes you incredibly strong.

-

Exhaust

When the other team has a lot of champion's that'll make your carries have a terrible day, it's worth while to pick this up instead of Ignite.

Rune Explanation

As you may have noticed, I don't have a hair trace of armor or magic resist.
I personally see it as a waste of space on a champion like Zilean.

When you get caught as Zilean, the vast majority of the time's you aren't going to make it out alive.

Having the extra AP can be detrimental and absolutely soul-crushing in the early laning phase.

You need to have a very high sense of awareness if you decide to take on the glass-cannon Zilean build.
Try to stay in the back as much as possible, and only make moves when you see an opportunity to do so.

Zilean is a very high-risk & high-reward champion, where in the right hands it can be a menace to deal with.

Itemization

I wouldn't start with anything other than spellthief's edge on Zilean support, you rack up gold very quickly with the constant harass. Bread-and-Butter item for Zilean

-

Frost Queen's Claim

You should have this item built a few minutes before mid-game hits. Probably the best item Zilean can have in his tool-kit. Helps him escape, and chase down enemies.

-

Ionian Boots of Lucidity

You have an option between CDR boots, or Sorcerer's Shoes.
I recommend grabbing CD boots over the MPen for the extra CD.
You already have enough AP and MPen from my build guide that you don't need Sorc boots.

Solid item to build on Zilean, you can either build the Void Staff first, or Liandry's Torment.

You get 300HP.
More Magic Penetration.
And the passive works in your favor two-fold.
Burn's tanks healthbars, and the effect is doubled if you combo stun Bombs or impair their movement in any way, which is pretty much any time you harass.

-

Morellonomicon

What more can Zilean ask for?
AP, Mana Regen, CDR, and Grievous wound.
All-in-one item.
Very solid near-end game item for Zilean.

-

Rabadon's Deathcap

Because why not?
No, but seriously, if you get this item, you will literally blow up their carries to ashes.

Items I Don't Build

Sightstone

Now I know what you're thinking. Where in this build is the sightstone? You're the support, why don't you have a sightstone?!

As previously stated, this build is for low ELO Bronze to High Plat, and after hundred's of games played, there hasn't been an instance where I needed to build a sightstone.

Therefore, it is absolutely quintessential to carry around pinks with you at all times, and to use your trinkets sparingly.
Let your team know you won't be building a sightstone. Have a few people build Farsight Alteration .

-

Rod of Ages

Waiting for this item to build-up takes an incredibly long time and your damage output will take a toll.
Sure you increase your surviveability, but you're almost always going to be dead if you get caught out. And yes you can ult yourself, but you don't want to end up in that situation in the first place.

Go glass-cannon, and play positioning.

-

Luden's Echo

I tried to make this item work, but the passive just doesn't do it for Zilean.
Sure you get an extra damage off when you land your bombs, but you only have one ability to proc the passive, and if you miss your bombs..Well..It's just a waste of an item.

-

Rylai's Crystal Scepter

Same concept as Luden's Echo, you only have one ability to proc the passive.
The extra health you get is a bonus, but the slow proc isn't worth building this.

Combo Wombo and Tips!

Combo's

Your main bread and butter combo's will be:

1. QWQ
Your stun will only go off IF your bomb sticks to a unit and you throw another bomb on top of it.

Your stun will NOT go off if...
a) You just throw 2 bombs on the ground where there is no unit.
b) You throw bombs at two different units, even if they intersect, the stun will not go off.
So make sure you land your bombs accordingly!

4. A little secret to Zilean is his Blood Moon skin. His ult animation/color is a lot more difficult to see than his default/other skins. It can be incredibly difficult to see Zilean's ult in teamfights if you use that skin.

5. Because this support build does not have a sightstone in the build, make sure you always have pinks in your inventory.
Don't facecheck brushes, use your bombs!

Here is a video of me playing in Plat ELO, take note of positioning, stuns, and ults.
Check out my new videos!